TPK: Should I let it happen? Am I being fair?

[hawkeyefan]

There can be consequences without needing to kill all the PCs.

 

[billd91]

Consider making sure to demonstrate the awesome power of a fully operational motherf... demon by killing one or two of them. But also let them escape if they try to do so in anything like a reasonable manner. The demon can rampage across the countryside, laying waste to all they hold dear. Slather on the guilt trip like a Catholic mother. And then let them desperately quest to find some way to stop the damn thing. That's way better than just a TPK because you get to keep rubbing it in.

 

[cmad1977]

The heroes intentionally made the demon more powerful. Don't hold back. Yes there are other awesome consequences than death and usually I'm all for them. In this case the heroes seem to have knowingly made their bed.
As long as it's clear to them (I'd go with 'so you guys realize that all the things you killed went to feed this demon right?') I'd let them sleep in it.


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[ccs]

Consider making sure to demonstrate the awesome power of a fully operational motherf... demon by killing one or two of them. But also let them escape if they try to do so in anything like a reasonable manner. The demon can rampage across the countryside, laying waste to all they hold dear. Slather on the guilt trip like a Catholic mother. And then let them desperately quest to find some way to stop the damn thing. That's way better than just a TPK because you get to keep rubbing it in.

Of course if after a few of them are killed & they keep fighting rather than run? Keep killing them. If a TPK occurs? (shrugs)
BTW, target the characters of the players who think you won't actually TPK them 1st.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I would either let the demon escape before the players reach it and have it start rampaging the countryside or let the players start the fight, take out a couple of them and wether they escape or not I would have the demon simply leave, telling the characters that they are not worth his time, and maybe make the lair come down on them, trapping them temporarily.

AR

 

[LordEntrails]

DON'T do the necromancer thing. That's worse than nerfing the demon. If you insist that the outcome of your adventure is pre-determined, then you have just created a railroad.

Let them die if they insist, let them run away, let them deal with the consequences of their actions. You can give them plenty of info during the fight (like the demon thanking them for making him so powerful that they can not kill him, etc) and you can give them chances to not win in multiple ways. But if you guarantee their victory, then you have just stolen their investment in their characters and choices.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Here is what I would do. The PCs burst in and are confronted with the big bad demon of evilness. Make it abundantly clear that this thing is WAY beyond their abilities. It scoops some of the cultists and eats them nonchalantly, growing larger as it does. Everyone, not just the good cleric / paladin can feel this things evil radiate from its body. Fear creeps into your heart and you know that you screwed up and that this thing is your fault.

Now the PCs have some options.

1) Turn evil and serve the demon. Kind of lame but it could take the campaign to some interesting places.

2) Stand your ground and face the evil that you helped bring into this world. Your PCs will lose. You cannot save them from themselves. And you will just have to let the dice fall where they may. Their defeat could be the springboard to another campaign! Now, if your players are like mine then they may gear up for their doomed last stand and blindly ignore a means of escape. Don't be afraid to point that out. If the players are unanimous that they have to stay and fight, let them. And kill them. And then use their old PCs against their new ones.

3) Give the PCs an out. Let them drop their weapons and flee from the cultist lair; tails between their legs. Perhaps the demon is not pleased with the cultists that dared to summon it. How dare they disrupt its plans in the abyss! So as the demon eats these pesky mortals the PCs can quickly exit out the front door.
Now the campaign becomes "What do you do?" Do the PCs go to High Holy Temple of Light and seek out a way to defeat this dangerous foe? Do they flee into the wilderness and attempt to save refugees and rebuild society? Do they begin a guerrilla campaign against the cultists?

A defeat here, and this should certainly go into the Loss column, doesn't mean the end.

 

[Moraine]

And of course the summoning is unavoidable, e.g. you cannot kill the main summoner to prevent the demon from coming into this plane.

If your players see you watching this [video=youtube;Nrhnt1h_lMI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrhnt1h_lMI[/video] just before that battle maybe they understand what is about to happen.

 

[Shawn Ballard]

I vote let them live but make it painful. Destroy some of their magic items, have the big boss banish them to an elemental plane or make them watch as the village is ravaged by summoned monsters.

 

[Sunseeker]

Totally would do it. Your players might surprise you. A lucky string of crits or something, or they might not, and die horribly.

But if the demon is that powerful, perhaps more powerful than the cult imagined, the demon now has greater interests than decimating some lowly countryside. Maybe he'll rough the players up real good, kill 2 of them and then start wondering what the player's friends and family taste like.